The Man Without A Name
by Sarahbeara333
Summary: Eisly Knötle has been stuck on the planet of Glov for two months with no sign of the Doctor returning. She turns to her memories of him for comfort that he will return. T for some mild language
1. Chapter 1

A very long way away on the planet of Glov on the edge of the Trifid Nebula there lived a woman named Eisly. Well you couldn't really call it _living on Glov_ as she was stuck there with only a basic civilization for company. They had only _just_ invented the flying car! And to think she had to pretend to be one of them for an undetermined amount of time. Eisly was blue—in every sense of the word. Not only was her skin the mysterious shade of twilight but she also longed for an adventure that she had long-since given up on. Yes, it was all very well that she was off exploring the universe—she had always wondered what the Trifid Nebula looked like—but now it seemed like a cruel joke! She had not wanted to be stuck somewhere, but to go everywhere. And now she was stuck on some primitive planet waiting, _waiting_ for that stupid, brilliant, annoyingly wonderful man to finish destroying whatever evil he saw fit. God she hated him sometimes!

She knew she didn't though, not really. As much as she wanted to blame him for getting her stuck on Glov (even thinking the name made her shutter in disgust) it _had _been her idea to go to a cluster nebula and it _had _been her who spotted and identified a Crespallion battleship (well she _is _a Crespallion after all, she aught to be able to identify her own planets war markings) and it also _had_ been her who suggested they go after it. But she had said **WE **not **YOU**! Once he made up his mind to go it had been clear she was not invited. She could remember the conversation so well, even though it had happened over two months ago…

"_Doctor—"_

"_No. It's too dangerous Eisly, I'm going alone."_

"_Doctor, don't be stupid you'll be killed. I've got it all planned out, we'll knock out a guard, steal his uniform, I'll put it on and escort you to the control room where you can destroy the ship and—"_

"_No"_

"_Why not?" Eisly pouted. She couldn't believe he wanted to leave her behind! First he burst in to her room in the dead of night, muttering something that sounded like Vashter Nervada and shouting at her to run. Then after they had defeated the shadows (well not really shadows, she had learned but an alien race called the 'Vashta Nerada') he had explained to her how he had a space ship called a TARDIS which could go anywhere in time and space. That's what he had promised her, so why did he want to leave her on the third planet they visited while he ran around and had all the fun? _

"_You know why," he stated calmly. "I can't lose anybody else, I couldn't take it."_

"_But it's just a Crespallion battleship, not even that dangerous really, compared to those vicious shadows that eat people or the Cyber-whatever's we ran in to on Tara..." _

"_It's called a _Cyberman,_" he stated in his best know-it-all voice. She half expected him to take out his brainy specs and have a field day._

"_And those times were accidents. I'll be back soon. Well, sort of. Soon to you anyway, might be long to me cos I don't really know how long it will take or if I'll get caught_

_Or—" Eisly, sensing the Doctor was going to get off on a tangent interrupted quickly,_

"_Yeah, yeah timey-wimey I get it, I get it. Fine, have an adventure on your own Doctor but can't I at least wait in the TARDIS?"_

_The Doctor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. _

"_The last time I let someone 'wait in the TARDIS' they got themselves arrested by Torchwood." Eisly, who had _no _idea what Torchwood was but didn't really feel like getting a two-hour explanation on the matter asked, "And what happened to them Doctor? I bet they saved your life." Suddenly, the Doctor looked very old and very sad, all 907 years showing on his face. "I lost her," he stated simply._

_ Eisly, who was so startled by the sudden display of emotion, forgot entirely of her side of the argument and exactly why she wanted to go and not be suck on Glov said in an abrupt, quiet voice, "Okay, go." Earning a shocked expression from the Doctor who must not have even realized exactly how much he looked like a lost puppy. In a slightly louder voice she said, "But so help me Doctor if you don't come back—" _

"_I'll come back," he said. Then he gave her his trademark cheeky smile and a good-bye hug and he was on his way._


	2. Chapter 2

Eisly snapped back to the present and smiled sadly. He had promised to come back, so where was he? She sat down on the cool red dirt, suddenly realizing just how stuck she was, no only in some far region of unknown space but in a whole different time too, if the Doctor didn't come back. She guiltily thought of her mum and dad. She hadn't told them when she'd left with the Doctor, how could she? What was she supposed to say 'Bye mum I'm popping out for a trip to Mars in 2718, be back for tea'?

Suddenly she felt a wave of dislike for the man who had taken her out of her comfortable life, under the triple suns of Crespallion with her safe, easy life and her sturdy, arranged marriage. But she wasn't mad at him, not really. She way mad that she had let herself be taken away by a man whose name she did not even know, that she had let herself become taken with his magic-like living ship and his shiny silver sonic screw driver, let herself love him. She didn't love him in a romantic way though; he was more like a brother or a best friend.

Even through all of it though, she knew if she had the choice to go back and remake the decision of leaving with him, she wouldn't change it. Not for anything in all the worlds. Not for anything in all of time and space because what she had seen–the scarce amount of three different worlds besides her own–was beautiful, and they were just a fraction of what there was to be seen. Maybe what would be seen? She wondered if he had simply forgotten her, gone off to live another life with another companion. She doubted it, though. It just wasn't very _Doctorish_ to forget something like that and she knew he wouldn't leave her behind on purpose. Of all the worlds she'd seen with him and all the laughs and frights they'd shared, she knew he wouldn't leave her behind and wouldn't forget her. And without really meaning to, she drifted off in to memories about the exotic alien worlds she'd visited…

"_So...?"_

_Eisly realized he was wondering her name._

"_Eisly." she said uneasily. "Eisly Knötle."_

"_So Eisly, all of Space and Time... Where are we going to go first?" The Doctor asked. Eisly simply stared at him. He had just told her to get out of her bed in the middle of the night, sent some weird beam of yellow light over her entire house, told her he was a time-traveling alien, and then asked her to travel with him. "Time–time travel. Yeah right. You've gotta be _really_ thick to think I'm gonna be tricked by some–some mad man with a box!" She spat at him. He looked at her as if she were a child and simply asked her to look inside said box. _

_Eisly rolled her eyes but humored him, thinking she would at least get a laugh out of it. She pushed on the door but it was stuck. "Excuse me but your boxes door seems to be stuck." He winked at her and pulled out a small, silver key. As he was unlocking the door she asked, "What did you say your name was again?" "He gave the doors a small shove and they opened a peek. As Eisly looked inside she saw an impossible sight displayed before her. _

"_I didn't. Say my name, I mean. You can call me Doctor…" he trailed off seeing that she wasn't listening to a thing he was saying._

"_How… What? But–but… That's impossible," was all Eisly managed to get out. The box was maybe 50 centimeters on each side but on the inside it was clearly a lot larger. The Doctor smirked slightly. He had obviously seen this reaction before. Trying to pull herself together so she wouldn't seem like a fool she stared at the Doctor, instead of his, dare she say it, magic box. Of course she knew it wasn't _actually_ magic, she wasn't stupid. She supposed it was some sort of alternate dimension but that technology wouldn't be available in its most basic form for thousands of years. But he _had_ said time travel… _

_ The Doctor had mad, spiky redwood brown hair that stuck up every which way. He was pale and stocky with long legs. He wore a brown pin-stripped suit with a slightly lighter shade of brown faux-suede overcoat and a pair of maroon trainers. He had large, cow-brown eyes that looked incredibly, impossibly old placed underneath very expressive eyebrows. His nose was slightly large, and beak like but worked well with his face and easily balanced out his thin lips and medium-high cheekbones._

_ Even examining his slim features could not distract Eisly for more than a few moments from the fact that this _Doctor_ person had a time traveling blue box. "Ah–yes. Bigger on the inside." He said as if it were the most usual thing in the world. Eisly held her head high and walked inside. He had asked where she wanted to go so she sure as hell was going to give him a place._

_ "There was this planet that I read about in one of my grandfathers books…" she said slowly. "It was destroyed about 1,000 years ago. Can you take me there?" "Just tell me the name." He grinned at her. She was starting to like this mad Doctor. _

"_Abydos."_

_His face lit up. "Oh but Abydos is brilliant! I went there once, about 600 years ago. 628 years ago actually, to be exact." He said as he pushed a lever. There was a large jerk and they were in flight. "I was there with Romana! You would've like Romana she was brilliant too… Thought she knew how to fly the TARDIS better than me though, _my _TARDIS! Always told me I should read the handbook!"_

"_You should read the handbook!" Eisly cried, who was getting seriously worried she had run away with somebody who didn't know how to fly his own spaceship._

"_I couldn't if I wanted to!" He said indignantly._

"_What do you mean you can't?"_

"_I threw it in to a star because I disagreed with it!"_

"_Oh well that's just fantastic," said Eisly sarcastically. "I've run away bloody idiot!"_

"_Oi!" The Doctor said, but he leveled them in to a steadier flight pattern with a slight blush._

_ After a few minutes of talking, the Doctor pulled some things that went 'ding', pushed some buttons that went 'bong', occasionally hit something with a hammer or stroking the consol. After giving something metal a good kick and moaning with muted pain he started snapping rudely at the large glass cylinder, placed in the middle that moved up and down when the ship was in flight._

"_You speak to that thing as if it's alive…" she trailed off as he gave her a look that clearly showed how much smarter he thought himself than her._

"_Who says it's not?" He asked._

_Eisly snorted but then saw he was serious. _

"_You are so… So… Odd!" She said finally._

_He laughed and said, _

"_Aren't we all? Ah hear we are, Abydos–2086"_

_ Eisly stepped out of the TARDIS after the Doctor and looked around in amazement. They had moved! They had _actually _flown away in a little blue box, all the way across billions of stars and hundreds of thousands of galaxies, through time its self and landed on an obscure rocky planet with a Leisure Hive trillions of miles and thousands of years away from her own. All at once, Eisly felt very, very small._

"_You've done it." She whispered in awe, "You've really taken us to somewhere new."_

_The Doctor chuckled. _

"_Yes I really have,"_

"_You know I was still half convinced you were some nutter who stole a science experiment," she laughed. _

"_Well…" He said, "She wasn't a science experiment…"_

_Eisly just smiled at his impossibleness and questioned excitedly, _

"_So is it true, what they say about the old days? Do they really have non gravity swimming pools and robotic gladiatorial games and—"_

"_Yes," He cut her off, knowing the faze of time-travel acceptance she was at was the talk-your-ear-off stage. When Eisly made a hurt face at him only half joking he gave her an apologetic shrug. _

"_Now let's go swimming!" he said, looking like an excitable man-child. His expression and comment almost made her forget about his rudeness but she remembered enough to say a mumbled 'Rude' and at the last second before running in the direction of the Leisure Hive, which was about fifty meters off she said quickly, "Race you to the Hive!" _

_The Doctor let out a laugh before catching up to her, which was easy for him considering his long legs. Eisly grinned at him mischievously before tripping him and running the short distance left to the Citadel. "I win!" Eisly shouted triumphantly. The Doctor gave her a look somewhere between happy amusement and pure loathing. Eisly turned and walked quietly and calmly in to Leisure Hive 7 which was difficult considering she was laughing so hard she aught to be on the ground. When a guard gave her a patronizing look she muttered an apology and showed a sheepish grin._


	3. Chapter 3

Eisly smiled at the memory. They had a fun day, not only with the swimming and robot fights but the Leisure Hive had also contained a sleep-reading station, an accelerated learning station, and a full spa with all types of odd alien facial treatments and mud baths complete with mud from Alexandria (the planet, _not_ the old Earthen city). Eisly's favorite station had been the underwater tennis and the Doctor hadn't said but she suspected the his favorite station had been the Galactic Riddle station; in which they asked questions about data they had collected from all over the universe. He hadn't gotten a single question wrong. Ah, the Doctor. If only he would hurry up and get her already! Eisly does _not_ want to spend the rest of her life on Glov; it wasn't even pretty! Eisly knew she wasn't kidding herself. Glov was beautiful. With its golden yet silver grass, its tall pink mountains; dusted with snow, and its low greenish blue valleys with tree tops of bright orange; Glov was more than beautiful. It was radiant. She suspected the only planet that could've matched the beauty of it (even if it was just a hologram showed to her grudgingly) was the Doctor's own planet; Gallifrey.

_ "So Doctor, where are we off to next?" Eisly asked, feeling more relaxed then she had in her entire life. The Leisure Hive had been _just_ what she needed. After years of pressure for being the only child of a rich, aristocratic family on Crespallion and worrying about marriage and social cues and which fork was to be used for what, she had finally been able to be a child with all of the alien games and rides and the spa had simply melted the stress away from her tight muscles and sore bones. _

_ "How about… Anura? Or perhaps Flane, I love Flane! It has volcanoes that shoot out __**flaming**__ ice. Only place in the galaxy. Or maybe Kurhan; Kurhan has the most _brilliant _crystal lakes and a banana grove to _die _for. I love bananas, have I said?"_

"_What about your planet, Doctor?" Eisly asked, suddenly curious where the Doctor came from. The Doctor paused and his smile faltered._

"_Nah," he said uneasily. "Where's the fun for me? No. How about we go to Magnus?"_

_But the look on his face said he would like nothing more then to go home._

"_Doctor," Eisly paused, not wanting to make him angry with her and drop her off back on her horridly dull planet but decided it was better to press on. He knew about her, she should know about him._

"_Doctor, why can't we go to your planet? And don't say we _can_ and you just don't _want_ to cos it looks to me like there's nothing you would enjoy more." _

_The Doctor looked like a deer caught in the headlights. _Bingo_, Eisly thought. If there was one thing she was good at, it was understanding people at a glance._

"_It's gone." He said quietly, his words no longer containing the steam engine quality they seemed to have when he spoke of everything else. _

"_What do you mean 'It's gone'?" she asked carefully._

"_Destroyed. It–it was destroyed."_

"_How?"_

"_I–there was a war; A war with the most horrid beings in all of creation. They were called the… Daleks, originating from the planet Skaro—"_

_Eisly drew a breath, for she had heard of the Daleks. They were an old legend, a horror story told to children who misbehaved back on her planet. It was said that they once held much of the universe under their steely hand; trying to keep all species in check with an icy, Nazi-like regime. They were said to hate all beings that weren't Dalek and tried to 'Exterminate' as they called it, everything and everyone that wasn't one of them. It seemed that all had been lost and the Dalek emperor would rule the universe until one day—they simply disappeared without a trace. 'Off to fight a greater war…' was what her grandfather had said. She had never imagined it was more than just a story, told to scare children but perhaps it _had_ been real… _

_ "Ah I see you've heard of them," the Doctor said grimly._

_Instead of responding directly to the comment Eisly said,_

"_It was you, wasn't it. You—whatever you are with your pinky skin and unmarked face—it was your kind the Daleks left to go fight, even with their thumb-hold on the universe."_

"_Yes,"_

_Eisly looked him over; he suddenly looked very old and very tired._

"_What are you?"_

"_Timelord. The last of them, now."_

"_What happened?"_

"_There was a war," The Doctors pain was almost palpable._

"_Nobody was winning, nobody ever could. We were evenly matched in every way. There was a timelock placed on the war so that nobody could take a TARDIS and go back into the war and muck about with the time stream. Whatever happened, it would have to happen and could not, _should not_ be changed. And then, in the last few days of the war the Timelords started planning something… bad. Something very, very not right."_

"_What?" Eisly whispered, fear evident in her voice._

"_I don't want to talk about it," The Doctor said shortly. "I like to remember them the way I choose to, with love and happiness not fear and corruption."_

"_Okay," said Eisly, for once not pushing._

"_Then tell me what happened, in the end."_

"_I–I had to do it. They were going to…" He trailed off, seemingly trying to convince himself more than her._

"_I destroyed them, all of them. Not just the Daleks—but the Timelords, too." The Doctor steeled himself. "And I've been alone ever since. I've had human–" He looked her over " –and… _other_ companions. But the noise, the constant hum of _others_ in my head, others like me it–it's gone."_

_They were quiet for a long time until finally Eisly said softly,_

"_It's not your fault, Doctor."_

_He gave her a smile that was as grateful as a person receiving the thing they've always wanted._

"_Thanks," he said, as if it meant the world. Perhaps it did._

_Eisly felt an urge to reach out and hold him, and so she did. As she snatched him in to a tight hug, he frowned in to her hair. They sat in that position for a long while before the Doctor murmured uncertainly in to her hair,_

"_I can show you it, if you like."_

_Eisly pulled back in surprise._

"Show _me? But I thought—"_

"_Yes, it's gone. But every TARDIS has a holographic image display of the planet they were grown on. Old Sexy here was grown on Gallifrey so I can pop up an image of it whenever I want."_

"_Then why don't you look at it, all the time," wondered Eisly aloud._

"_It doesn't due to dwell on dreams, Eisly."_

_She gave him an interested look. It reminded her of something a wise old man once said from a book she read as a kid._

"_You're wise… much too wise for someone your age. How old are you because you're certainly not the forty you're looking."_

"_And you're smart. Certainly smarter than the average Crespallion. You know I met this Crespallion once when watching the end of planet earth and—"_

"_Don't avoid the question."_

"_907."_

"_What?" she sputtered._

"_907." He repeated casually._

"_You're joking…" she trailed off. "You're not though, are you?"_

"_Not even a little bit," he smiled at her._

_She returned the smile incredulously._

"_You crazy, impossible man."_

_He grinned at her again and stood up–brushing his already immaculate suit off–and headed over towards the console of his TARDIS. Soon, his smile melted in to a more nostalgic, sad look as he pressed a few buttons that must have done __**something**__ but as far as Eisly was concerned just made a lot of noise. He gave her a sad smile and a nod, and then pushed a final button on the console. At first, nothing happened. Then, after a few moments a whirring noise emitted from somewhere deep inside the ship, like old motors trying to restart themselves again after a long time of under use and a hologram appeared in between the Doctor and Eisly._

_ Eisly sucked in a breath; it was the most beautiful planet she had ever seen. The sky was a rare shade of burnt orange and the grass was velvet red and swept serenely across slow rolling hills on one side. On the other, it faded off in to a small sprinkling off trees that grew larger until there was an entire forest full of deep brown trees with leaves of sparkling silver. The forests ran up in to snow covered mountains, twin suns just peaking out from behind the looming reddish haze. _

_ And that wasn't even the most stunning part. In the center of all the beautifully colliding nature stood a citadel, so increspallionly beautiful it looked as if the gods themselves had crafted it. Inside the glass sphere, as if pressed against the edge were small houses glinting with copper and gold. The closer to the middle of the citadel she looked, the larger and more majestic the buildings seemed to get, ending with one which was by far the largest and connected to many of the smaller ones. There were what looked like cars flying around the beautiful land, zipping in and out of markets and buildings._

_ "Beautiful, wasn't it," said the Doctor, looking up at her with haunted eyes._

_ Eisly pondered this for a moment, never taking her stare away from what was officially the most enchanting thing she had ever seen. _No_, she wanted to say. Because beautiful didn't even begin to cover it but for lack of a better word she nodded a wordless yes. _

_After a long pause in which Eisly studied the land before her and the Doctor looked at it with a fondness one could only get from living on a place since the time you were born; two small children appeared through a transmat Eisly guessed, right on the outside of the citadel and started to run with each other through the dark grasses._

_ "Come on Theta, race you to the tree!" one shouted._

_ The other didn't reply but pushed past the first, having clear advantage by being almost half a foot taller. The taller of the two had sandy blond hair that bounced as he ran. The second, jet-black and shoulder length. Soon the two boys arrived at the tree they'd apparently been talking about and sat down, hand in hand in the cool shade the silvery tree cast for them._

_ "Who were they?" asked Eisly._

_The Doctor smiled sadly and pointed to the blond, slightly disrupting the hologram._

"_That was me, a long time ago. A _very_ long time ago," he said with a defeated look upon his face._

_ "Then who is—" Eisly was cut off in the middle of her question, something she realized she'd probably have to get used to if she wanted to travel with the Doctor._

_He bristled, "No one."_

_Eisly tore her eyes away from the extraordinary image in front of her with extreme difficulty and looked at him square in the face. He looked even older and sadder than before, if that was possible._

_ "Doctor, who is that."_

_He looked at her and this time, he answered more truthfully._

_ "He was my best friend and then my…" the Doctor stopped abruptly, looking nervous. "Anyway… We would always sneak out of our lessons the professors in the citadel taught and go running to that tree together. It was our tree, Mine and Kosc—"_

_The Doctor coughed and corrected himself._

"_The Master. The Master and I."_

_ Eisly was transfixed. Not only with the Doctor's stories of old friends and changing names, but also with his entire time spent on his planet–Gallifrey. She wanted to hear about it all day and listen to stories about the forgotten and timeless places and people of this world. So she said so._

_ "Tell me about it, Doctor. Tell me about Gallifrey."_

_ So for the rest of that day, Eisly and the Doctor had done nothing but talk of Rassilon (the president of Gallifrey), the Academy (where a Gallifrein learned how to become a Timelord), and the Master [once a friend, turned mad by gazing in to the untempered schism (Though Eisly suspected there was more to the story than the 'just a friend' stuff the Doctor had told her but she had decided not to push that, as well)]. Not only those specific things though. They talked about the way the grass had smelled and the sound of the soft trickling of too-blue water in the hidden springs of the liquid silver forests. The Doctor seemed glad to get it out and Eisly was so enthralled that they didn't get to their respected beds until about six in the morning, when the hologram finally flickered, and died, as the planet had; leaving them in shadow and giving the air an upsettingly desperate feeling. That night (or morning) Eisly had dreamt of nothing but silver leaves and red fields._


	4. Chapter 4

Eisly sighed peacefully; she would never forget Gallifrey. Even if she had never physically visited it, it felt as though it were a part of her now, and she suspected the same of anyone who came in to contact with it. Something that beautiful, you just _couldn't_ forget. Not that you would ever want to anyway.

The impossible planet of Gallifrey and the wonderful stories she'd heard were the last relaxing–albeit emotionally draining–planetary experience that she'd had with the Doctor for some time. Their 'little run-in' with the Cybermen had thrown them back in to reality quite quickly, away from fantasies of lost planets. Their visit to the planet Tara had been quite exhilarating, to say the least.

_Eisly yawned when she awoke in her yellow-sheeted bed in the TARDIS. She sat up in the _very _comfortable sheets quickly and got a head rush as she threw the comforter to the side. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and gave a sharp yelp as her soft feet touched the icy floor._

_ "Doctor!" she shrieked. "Turn on your heater or whatever it is you Timelords have, I'm freezing!"_

_ The blue Crespallion heard a mumbled sound come from the hall outside and stumbled out of bed. Eisly hopped from foot to foot as she walked out of her room and down a large and rather presumptuous corridor that had shelves and shelves of books lining either side and large marble columns holding up the ceiling. She knocked on a few doors until she heard a groaned 'Come in' and padded inside._

_ Inside the room (which was clearly not the room the Doctor slept in) were many assorted gadgets and gizmos as well as a couple of chemistry sets, a taffy maker, and a few things with wings that zoomed around the room–Eisly was unable to tell if they were robots or aliens. The Doctor was standing in the very center of it all, hunched over and staring at his fist._

_ "Doctor. It. Is. __**Freezing**__. Stopped playing with space toys and turn on the heat!"_

_The Doctor replied with a distracted but excited,_

_ "Yeah, yeah, in a mo. But Eisly, come here first. You have _got_ to see this."_

_Eisly looked more closely at the Doctor as she walked over, seeing that he was not, in fact staring at his hand but at what was held inside of it. He was holding a beautiful flower of the purest white, seemingly crafted out of ice. It sparkled and glinted in the light, throwing glass rainbows throughout the entire room. Eisly wanted to touch it but was afraid to disturb its perfect beauty._

_ "It's called… a Lythelily." Stated the Doctor proudly. "It can only be found on the planet of Metsolythensy. It needs the temperature to be bellow 0° Celsius so it wont wither and turn into a brown puddle. It is said that it has healing powers if consumed and enough power inside its core to run a car for a year. Do you know what a car is? Yeah, course you do. Anyway, I picked it when I popped out for my morning walk. Oh I brought you a Yintueberry muffin, by the way. Wonderful fruit, Yintueberries –I've always thought they tasted like a mix between Dragon fruit and Bananas. I like bananas by the way, did you know?"_

"_It's beautiful…" said Eisly in amazement._

"_The Yintueberry? Delicious, definitely and tangy to be sure but I'm not that positive about beau–"_

_Eisly cut him off. "Not your stupid berries, idiot the flower." _

_She whacked him lightly on the arm. The Doctor looked insulted–probably more by the term idiot than the whack._

"_Oi, don't diss the berry! And I will have you know I can re-sight every alphabet of every language ever, backwards fluently." he said in an affronted tone but added, _

"_Yeah, it is, isn't it."_

_Eisly smiled to herself._

_ "You never cease to amaze me Doctor. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to take a shower. A long, hot, steamy shower–which should not, under _any_ circumstances, be interrupted."_

"_But what if–"_

_ "No."_

_ "Not even if–"_

_ "Doctor, I don't care if the TARDIS is exploding, do _not_ interrupt my shower."_

_ He scowled good-naturedly at her. Eisly gave the sumptuous Lythelily one last wondering glance then turned to leave for her shower. As she started to walk out if the odd room, the Doctor called,_

_ "Oh, where do you want to go next?"_

_Eisly hummed to herself and thought it over. She really didn't know of too many interesting planets from different times than her own so she said,_

_ "Surprise me. Somewhere with a name that starts with a T…"_

_ "I think I've got just the place." The Doctor smiled at her._

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞**Θ**

"_Here we are, Tara. 2013. Indigenous species–Tarans and androids. The planets culture is much like that of 19__th__ century Earth. You know, besides the androids obviously. Temperature–22° Celsius." Announced the Doctor as they stepped out of the TARDIS. _

_After her shower, which had _almost_ been long and hot and relaxing and wonderful–until the hot water had shut off, leaving the Doctor with a half naked, very cold and _very _peeved Eisly and left Eisly with a hurt hand after she smacked the Doctor._

_ Eisly looked around Tara and was entranced with the grass and sky and rocks and trees. The grass was green, the sky blue! On Crespallion, the scarce grass had been deep purple and the sky a molten red. Tara was picturesque, the perfect example of simple tranquility. The majority of it stretched out over lazy hills and blue lakes that mimicked the color of the sky. There was only one sun in the heavens. In the background on one of the hills, Eisly could see a grey-stone castle. _

"_Ahem," the Doctor coughed, clearly wanting attention as he started yet _another_ history lesson of when he had been here and why._

"_Let me guess. You were here hunting some impossible piece of technology that could control time with some companion named Martha or Sarah or Romana."_

"_Well actually–"_

"_Never mind, Doctor. Let's create new memories instead of reminiscing in old ones."_

_The Doctor looked pleasantly surprised._

"_Well this is a change… From last night I mean."_

"_Maybe I took some of your advice to heart."_

_Eisly smiled at him. She had indeed taken what he'd said about thinking about Gallifrey to heart and out of half annoyance with his ever-running mouth and half pity with hopes to cheer him up decided it best not to discuss his past at every twist and turn._

_ The Doctor's returned smile was short lived and quickly turned in to a frown as he announced suddenly,_

_ "There's something wrong here. Something… _off_."_

_ Eisly looked around more closely but could detect nothing._

_ "I don't feel anything Doctor," she said uneasily._

_ "Yes but that last time I was here," he sent her an apologetic nod when she directed an annoyed stare at him but continued with his thought. "The last time I was here it was just _teaming _with life. Now–silence. Not a bird chirp or a rabbit hop or an android in sight. No hunters or kings or peasants–nothing. Something is very, very not right."_

_ "Well, there's no harm in investigating, right?"_

_The Doctor smiled at Eisly in amusement and said, _

"_You know there usually is with me…"_

"_But we're still going to anyway, right?"_

_It was more of a statement than a question. Eisly knew she had some pieces of the Doctor figured out completely when he smirked slightly and said,_

"_Yeah, coarse we are. You don't think I can resist a mysterious temptation that could only lead to danger and evil, do you?"_

"_And you think that I would let you leave, anyway? This place is gorgeous, even if it _does_ have evil aliens prowling about."_

"_You're the boss."_

"_I know I am."_

_Eisly and the Doctor then set out towards the castle, as they both figured it would make the most sense to check somewhere that would obviously be inhabited for people, first._

_Upon arrival at the castle, they both realized that there would be a problem. There was a large, wooden gate about 10 meters high which was bound by a black metal lock that looked as if it would take 30 men to even lift it. Eisly walked up and smacked the door in frustration until she saw the Doctor's slight smirk. He pulled out a long, silver stick about 7 inches long and sent a blue beam of light emitting a high-pitched buzz at the dark metal that seemed to disintegrate of its own accord. The door then fell backwards with a bang and Eisly; instead of peering around the door, looked at the Doctor. She stared at him with suspicious eyes as he sauntered over with an obvious I'm-pleased-with-myself swagger. Seeing her bemusement, the Doctor winked and said,_

"_Screwdriver. It's sonic."_

"_Yeah of course it is. Of course you've got a bloody sonic screwdriver. What else have you got in those bigger-on-the-inside pockets of yours, Doctor, hmm? How about some psychic paper? Or a DNA manipulating watch?"_

"_Well actually–"_

"_Oh, my, Crespal. You are just so–so impossible. Do you ever just do anything normally?"_

"_Well, maybe __**something**__… I just don't know what yet."_

_Eisly snickered. The Doctor really was a laugh in his own, quirky way._

_ "Come on then, O mighty king of weirdness. Let's go find this planets problem."_

_They walked cautiously through the now-empty doorframe–aware that they had made enough noise to alert anything in the castle of their presence. They tiptoed their way over the door and across the dark, dank front room, to the bottom of a set of stairs that stretched far up into the castles halls and corridors. _

_ Suddenly there was a loud sound, like a metal footstep from somewhere behind them. The Doctor whirled around and Eisly mimicked his actions a moment later gasping as a metal man came walking across the room. It was about 2 meters tall and by the way its shiny, metal boot hit the ground menacingly Eisly could guess it weighed somewhere around 14 stone. Its entire body was sleek and silver-grey and on top of its head it had something that looked like the top to old headphones bent in to a square shape. Its eyes and mouth were empty, black holes that felt as if you could fall in and get lost inside them if you looked too long. It had a similarly black teardrop welded next to its left eye._

_ "D-Doctor, what are they?"_

_ Eisly managed._

_ "They're called Cybermen, Eisly. And they're very, _very _dangerous."_

_ Eisly heard the sound of more metal feet marching uniformly down the stairs behind her and when she looked around for an escape route, found that they had been blocked and that they were surrounded by the metal creations. _

_ "Doctor," Eisly started to say. "We're –"_

_ "Surrounded, I know. They're also very, very smart."_

_ He responded with a grimace. Eisly was about to ask more about the Cybermen but as she opened her mouth to talk, one of them spoke with a chilling, low, monotone voice._

_ "You are not compatible," It said in its awful, robotic hum. "You shall be deleted."_

_Suddenly, the rest of the Cybermen started talking all at once, including the ones that were now not 5 meters behind her. They all repeated the same word over and over again as they moved closer with their arms out stretched, hands burning with blue electricity._

"_Delete, Delete, Delete."_


	5. Chapter 5

_As the Cybermen closed in on them, Eisly reached for the Doctors hand. **CLANG **came the sound from their boots uniformly. He took her slim, aristocratic blue hand in his warm calloused one and gave it a small squeeze._

_** CLANG.**_

"_Doctor, you know how we were talking before—about what unusual and amazing things you keep in your pockets and generally just how bloody brilliant you are?"_

"_Yeah…" came the tight rely._

_**CLANG.**_

"_Well now would be a good time to prove my theory." Said Eisly hurriedly. _

Oh gods _she thought. _I don't want to die, not here not like this. _The Doctor just gave her a look like it was Christmas. Didn't he understand the seriousness of their situation? They were about to fucking die!_

_**CLANG.**_

"_Why Eisly, I think you may have just given me a brilliant idea,"_

Oh. _Well that explained the look, then. The Doctor proceeded to shove his hand in his pocket and rustle around in it for what felt like hours. __**CLANG**__ came the sound a fifth time, the metal men getting uncomfortably close. Eisly looked worriedly at the Doctor, who was still searching through his pockets._

_**CLANG.**_

"_Any day now, Doctor." She said with frightened sarcasm as she shrunk against him. The Doctors smug expression of relief came at the same moment the final, earth-shattering **CLANG **sounded through the suddenly chilled air. Eisly shivered as it seemed to ring all around her and indeed penetrate through her; reverberating off of the slippery, cool walls. Eisly looked to the Doctor, her last pieces of shattered hope reseeding themselves in her eyes as she saw his expression was one of conquering pride and not the defeated steel she would have expected. _

_Eisly then realized two things at once. One: the awful, metallic intonation had ceased and two: the Doctor was holding something in the hand she must have missed him pulling from his pocket. Upon closer examination, Eisly envisaged he was delicately holding the icy Lythelily –which was actually no longer very icy, as it seemed to be melting. No, not melting Eisly realized, but evaporating. Streaming a rainbow of powerful energy directly to the branded chest–Eisly assumed it to be the core–of the Cybermen. Soon, there was nothing left of the stunning flower but a few pale blue leaves of which the Doctor shoved in to his pocket, half mumbling something to himself about the leaves containing the healing properties. When he was satisfied that all the Cybermen were fried, he began to unscrew the branding on their chests and started to pull out white, gooey looking wires. Once she had regained the capacity of speech (having a near death experience was bound to leave one at least a _little _bit tongue tied after all) she asked, _

"_Doctor, what–what were those things?"_

_The Doctor looked up at her very seriously as he ripped out more of the synthetic innards and said quietly,_

"_They were robots, for the most part. Metal men–certainly act it. They're emotionless, that's what makes them so dangerous. But that's not all they are–" he seemed to take an unhappy, deep breath before continuing. "–They're made of… Hold on, do you know what a human is?"_

_Eisly nodded wordlessly. Through all the tutors she had growing up as a wealthy child, she'd learned her fair share about other civilizations. Not that her schooling really had much to do with it. The fourth great and bountiful human empire was currently running strong in her time and while they did not dominate the part of the galaxy near Crespal, a few rogue traders would occasionally come by to barter with them for exotic new foods or advances in technology._

_The Doctor continued his explanation. "Well that's what they are–essentially. There's a _very _nasty process I would very much not like to go in to about brain removal involved so let's just say that they've ah–changed bodily forms. Of course, their minds have been altered, too. They cannot feel or think freely, usually anyway." The Doctor cut off as he appraised something inside one of the now-lifeless steel bodies. "Although these seem not to have a Cybercontroller… Lost souls, I suppose." He said with a wistful look Eisly didn't yet understand. _

"_Well, they're finished now. Dead. That Lythelily must have been stronger than I thought. Well, come along Eisly! We've got people to go, places to see! Wait–scratch that. Places to go, people to see."_

_On their way back to the TARDIS they talked about this and that, the Doctor explained that a Cybercontroller was usually a person that was not quite a Cyberman but had been slightly integrated in to the system. Eisly personally, didn't understand the method he had described but refrained from saying so because she didn't really need a very long, drawn out explanation. They also spoke of other planets and societies and when the matter of Eisly wanting to visit home came up, the Doctor happily agreed to take her for a visit soon. When they got back to the TARDIS Eisly yawned, and rubbed her eyes. Funny, she'd gotten a full twelve hours the night before but she supposed a long and exciting adventure could to do that to some one. _

_They trudged inside the TARDIS and climbed one of the many sets of stairs, bidding each other bleary-eyed good nights before Eisly walked in to her room and the Doctor wandered down the corridor, humming an alien tune. Eisly turned on the telly and changed in to a silky nighty. She crawled in to bed and curled in to a ball, drifting off in to a peaceful sleep as she half listened to the calming din of a detective show._

Eisly sighed and stood up from the rock she had been sitting on. Everyday she'd tortured herself like this for two months, thinking on her short albeit wonderful time with the Doctor and everyday she'd let herself hope, just a little, that he would some how hear her thoughts and be called to her. And everyday she was put through the same agonizing disappointment. It wasn't _just _the fact that he was the Doctor that she wanted him to come back–although that was a good portion of it–it was that she missed the traveling and the exploring and the _adventure _of it all. If she'd been simply dropped off on her own planet in her own time and been waiting for him it would have been easier, if only by a little. It would have been harrowing yes but not as much the cruel torment she experienced here, she didn't even know if she would ever again see her own family.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned as she took a few steps towards the city she currently resided in. _Lived_ she supposed she would have to start calling it because it seemed clear that the Doctor would not be coming back for her. She knew it was time to resign herself to that fact but when ever she had tried for the past week she had tricked herself in to _just one more time I'll hope he'll come_. Not anymore, though. It was time to move on, Eisly knew and she could finally understand that. _Oh God_ she thought. _I'm going to have to get a job. And a house. And _live _on this whole stupid planet the rest of my whole stupid life._

As Eisly stumbled over blue and green and brown rocks back to the brightly illuminated city she felt a clenching in her stomach and a telltale tightness of throat. Eisly felt a sudden urge to cry out.

"I can't believe it. You've really gone; you've really left me. Oh please Doctor, for the love of Gallifrey, _please_ please _just_ _don't leave me here!_"

Eisly got no response but the wind rushing through the bright orange trees. No acknowledgement but the golden silver grass whispering at her. And suddenly, Eisly was angry. No, not angry–she was furious. Furious because how dare he? How dare that unthinking, lumpish git leave her here? How could he just up and vanish on her and leave her here, in one place in one time–with such longing for risk and so full of restlessness that she could hardly contain herself not to scream at the passersby how dull and pointless their tiny lives really were? How could he leave her here loving him and then turn away with out a second thought?

She let out a choked sob that seemed to echo through the vacant landscape and that even the metallic green birds looked to quiet for. Eisly slid to the ground, not caring about the dirt that got scattered on her shiny white jumpsuit as the first tear leaked out of her eye and slid down her cheek. Many more streamed down her anguished twilight-colored face as she submitted to the fact that she would never again get to see her Doctor.

After what seemed like days of crying in self pity but was actually only hours, Eisly heard a strange noise in the distance. It sort of sounded like the TARD—but no. That was impossible because the TARDIS was many galaxies away, fighting the battle for the good of the Universe.

Yet again, Eisly heard the telltale 'Vworp' of the time traveling machine. And again. But she refused to believe it. Because Eisly knew that if she _believed_ it was the TARDIS and looked up and saw it wasn't—well she just didn't think she could take it. Too many times these past couple months had she looked up to the sound of his voice or sonic screwdriver and too many times had she been disappointed to find it was just a creaky sign or a voice of a similar tenor. But when she heard the 'Whoosh' of the final landing sound the TARDIS made and the whine of the never oiled door, Eisly knew she couldn't resist taking a peak.

When she did, Eisly really _couldn't_ believe it. There, standing at the door with key in hand–was the Doctor. The Doctor smiling his impish smile and twirling a key ring on his finger and gesturing for them to go inside. Millions of things went through Eisly's head of what she should do first. Should she hit him? Or yell at him or cry on his black trainers or just hug him? After staring at him slack-jawed for the longest or shortest time (Eisly couldn't really tell) she went with the latter.

She ran at him furiously and he swooped her up in a bone-crushing hug. He let her down gruffly and gave her an apologetic smile. There were so many things she wanted to ask him–where he'd been, what he'd been doing, _why _he'd left her on Glov for two months. But as he wiped away her latest tears with a frown and took her hand in his–giving it a gentle squeeze–she knew she could save all those things for a bit later. For now, she was content to just be with him. Just the Doctor and Eisly and the entire universe there for their taking.


End file.
